The New Hermeneutics of Barack Obama

Barack Obama is a political example of the concept of "language event" as defined by the biblical scholars of the New Hermeneutic School.
The New Hermeneutic is a method of biblical exegesis that gained popularity with biblical scholars in liberal, mainstream, Protestant seminaries in the 1960's-1970.
You can read brief definitions of the New Hermeneutic here and here. Here's a summary:
The New Hermeneutic sought to peel-away those layers of the biblical narrative in the New Testament that are not facts about the historical Jesus of Nazareth. The discounted material includes the myths and legends that evolved within the early Christian community following the death of the historical Jesus.
The peeled-away materials include the miracle stories, the historicity of the Resurrection, the Transfiguration, the Virgin Birth, his post-resurrection appearances, and so on. His early followers either made-up those stories, or adapted them from the popular culture at the time. In any...(Read Full Post)